1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates, generally, to the game of soccer. More particularly, it relates to a device that helps soccer players, as well as players of other team sports that involve a single moving object, e.g., a ball or puck, improve their situational awareness and technical skills.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Situational awareness is critical for every player on a field of play, whether the game is soccer, lacrosse, hockey, or the like. Players are constantly being taught to “look up” and to “know what to do with the ball/puck/etc. before you receive it.” These coaching mantras are intended to teach players to observe their surroundings (i.e. “look up”) so that they can evaluate their options and decide what they will do if they receive the ball or other sports implement, such as a hockey puck before they actually receive it. As used hereinafter, the term “ball” includes any such sports implement. A player who is aware of his or her surroundings can orient their body to the ball in a manner that will allow them to efficiently receive and control the ball and then pass it on to a chosen target, all while avoiding pressure and protecting the ball from opposing players. For example, knowing where both the defensive pressure is coming from and where there is open space to move, or at least one teammate to pass the ball to, allows a player to decide what first touch to take and how to orientate his or her body to both protect the ball and be in the best position to move with or pass the ball away from defensive pressure.
The development of situational or field awareness is the most difficult part of the game for any player to learn as it is a player's natural tendency to focus on the ball. The concept of “soccer intelligence” combines a high degree of situational awareness with the ability to analyze the observed conditions and make intelligent decisions based on the observed information. It is primarily their soccer intelligence, not their technical skills, that allows players to play more quickly, i.e., make decisions and execute them more quickly, and it is this skill that separates the good from the excellent players.
It is generally accepted that the decision making process involves multiple steps or components. This phenomenon was aptly described by Colonel John Richard Boyd in the context of air combat strategy but it is not limited to such strategy. Colonel Boyd described the decision making process as a loop, which he coined the OODA loop, making reference to the mental and physical decision making and execution process performed by a fighter pilot engaged in a dog fight. The acronym OODA stands for:
Observation: Using the five senses to collect data;
Orientation: Analyzing and synthesizing the data to form a mental perspective;
Decision: Determining a course of action based upon that mental perspective; and
Action: Physically executing the decisions.
In order to make a good decision, one must Observe the conditions and variables, Orient oneself in the time and space appropriate for the observed conditions (e.g., analyze and synthesize the observed data), Decide what action to take, and finally Act, i.e., execute that decision.
The speed at which a person can complete the OODA loop process is not as much limited by the physical constraints of the last step in the process, Action, but instead by the time it takes to Observe, Orient, and Decide. In the context of the game of soccer, for example, the physical action of passing a ball takes very little time; it is the process of Observing, Orienting, and then Deciding where to pass the ball to that is time consuming.
A soccer training tool sold under the trademark Footbonaut® was developed in Germany and first used by Borussia Dortmund as reported in the New York Times in an article found at goal.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/22/footbonaut-dortmunds-secret-weapon/?R=0.
The Footbonaut® is intended to improve a player's ability to react to balls which are fed to the player at speeds of up to seventy four miles per hour (74 mph) from one of four (4) low and four (4) high ball feeding positions. The player must control the ball fed to him/her and then pass the ball into one of sixty four (64) or seventy two (72) quadrants. There are seventy two (72) of such quadrants, eight (8) of which dispense balls, leaving at least sixty four (64) of said quadrants available as targets. The player's speed and pass accuracy are measured and recorded for evaluation purposes.
The Footbonaut® tests and challenges a player's ability to react quickly to audible and visual signals. For example, the direction from which the ball will be fed to the player is not known to the player until immediately before the ball is launched at the player. The player is alerted to the direction from which the ball will be fed by an audible signal. The player must very quickly turn to face the direction from which the ball will be fed. The player must then control the ball that is fed to him/her from either the low or high ball station. The target quadrant into which the player must pass the ball is identified by a visual cue, but not until immediately prior to or after the ball is dispensed by the Footbonaut device to the player. The OODA loop is therefore commenced only hundredths of a second before the player receives the ball. The Footbonaut device thus teaches players to improve their reaction to the ball but does not address all four (4) parameters of the OODA loop.
The Footbonaut is a complex, immobile apparatus that requires a dedicated area within a building. Its cost is reported to be between one and one-half to three million dollars. The permanent enclosed location is neither portable nor easily adaptable or configurable. Presumably for these reasons, it has been reported that the Footbonaut® is being only being used by two (2) to five (5) well-funded professional teams.
The Footbonaut® structure primarily teaches the Act/action phase of the OODA loop in that it gives a player many opportunities to practice receiving/controlling balls and then passing them into a particular target. The Footbonaut structure feeds the ball to the player from differing feed points which are not disclosed to the player until immediately before the ball is launched, thereby testing a player's ability to quickly react and turn to the direction from which the ball will be fed. Furthermore, balls are intentionally fed to the player at very high speeds or at difficult trajectories and spins, or both, to challenge the player's technical ball control skills. Finally, the player must pass or shoot the ball into a particular target quadrant which is not identified to the player until either immediately before or after the player has received the ball.
The Footbonaut device does not teach a player the most critical and time consuming steps of the OODA loop, namely the Observation, Orientation, and Decision components. The Footbonaut does not allow the player (i) to Observe the entirety of his/her surroundings to identify and differentiate between targets (teammates) and non-targets (opposing players); (ii) to Orientate himself/herself with respect to, in other words to analyze, the totality of the observed information, (e.g. direction from which the ball will be fed, the location of the designated target and the location of opposing players); and (iii) use this information to Decide on the best course of action to take in light of the observed conditions.
The Footbonaut fails at these critical tasks for a variety of reasons. First, the Footbonaut does not provide the player with any time to Observe the entirety of his/her surroundings before the ball is fed to the player. Secondly, even if the player is afforded sufficient time to observe his or her surroundings the Footbonaut does not employ multiple targets and non-targets (symbolizing opposing players) but only a single target quadrant, thereby eliminating the need for a player to observe and Orientate (analyze) his/her entire surroundings. Moreover, since the player can neither Observe nor Orientate himself/herself, the player is unable to reach the best Decision. Finally, the Footbonaut's multi-directional ball feeding structure is unrealistic to the game of soccer or any game in which only a single ball is employed. The location of the ball during a soccer match is always known to the players, in fact it is this knowledge that leads players to focus only on the location of the ball thereby falling victim to the overwhelming tendency to limit their field of vision to the area in front of them.
The Footbonaut emphasizes putting a player under duress, both physical and mental, by limiting the amount of information a player is given and forcing the player to react to the information rather than Observe, Orientate, and reach a Decision based on the information observed.
Thus there is a need for a soccer training structure that emphasizes and teaches players to habitually initiate the OOD part of the OODA loop before ball reception, rather than simply reacting under duress after having already received the ball. Such a structure should create more realistic playing situations and should teach the student/player to observe the entirety of his or her surroundings, i.e., the playing field, before the ball is received so that the player can orient or analyze this information to decide on the most optimal solution given the observed variables and finally to execute or act out that decision by positioning his or her body optimally in relationship to the direction of the oncoming ball, the location of the designated target or targets and the location of the non-targets (opposing players).
The improved training apparatus should be portable and affordable to local sports clubs, whether soccer, lacrosse, hockey clubs or the like and even individual teams.
However, in view of the art considered as a whole at the time the present invention was made, it was not obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art how the needed training structure could be provided.